Moth to a Flame (8 page)

Rolling my eyes, I shoved it at him and picked up my own to eat. “Dork.”

He laughed and I couldn’t keep the smile off my own face as we wolfed down our food. Cale was intense but could then turn around and be so good-natured. I was actually enjoying spending time with him, a man. There might never be a day when I would trust men like I should, but with Cale, it seemed like he was the only one I’d ever need to trust.

Breaking away from my happy thoughts, I reluctantly said, “It’s getting late. We should probably call it a night.”

“Kicking me out, huh?” he asked, cocking a sexy eyebrow, which caused an ache between my thighs. “I’ll pick you up Saturday around six. We’re going on a date. Dress comfortably,” he instructed, this time without question. “And please, for the love of God, don’t order any more damn shoes till that prick Sam cools off and leaves you alone,” he commanded seriously.

Dang.
I guess my shoe fetish was apparent to everyone.

“See you then, Cale,” I uttered, agreeing to an actual date.

He grabbed both of my hands, wrapping them around his back, and then put his own around me. When he leaned down, touching our noses together, my heart started racing like it always did when he was near. His lips brushed against mine in the slightest touch and my lips parted, inviting him in again. But he pulled back instead, leaving me with my mouth hanging open, and pecked my forehead.

“I have to save some of my moves for our date on Saturday. Catch you later, Lia,” he said casually, like he weren’t just leaving me there to suffer from his loss of touch. With a wave, he walked out the door.

What an ass,
I thought, watching as he walked down the porch steps, unsure which ass I was referring to.

GOD, THAT WOMAN is going to drive me crazy,
I thought as I walked back to my truck. I’d never really worried about anyone—except for Madison, which was in a completely platonic way—like I’ve done in the past couple of days with Lia. This woman had a magnetism about her that I couldn’t seem to pull away from—not that I’d want to anyway.

What went down with Sam earlier infuriated me. That dickhead was downright creepy and I got some bad vibes from him. In the morning, I was definitely going to call the delivery company and report him. I’d get his ass fired if it meant keeping him away from Lia.

I started the truck and drove away from her house. Not far up the street, another car started in the pitch black and peeled out. Why’d this woman have to live in the damn sticks? I’d have three locks on my door too if I lived in the middle of damn nowhere.

“Yes, I’d like to report some unprofessional behavior by one of your workers,” I told the operator on the phone the next morning.

“Certainly, sir. Do you have the driver’s name?” she asked me.

“Not exactly. I just know that his first name is Sam. He delivers my, uh, friend’s packages pretty frequently. She lives out on Nathan Drive here in Jonestown,” I supplied to her.

“Hmmm, let’s see,” she said as I heard her typing away in the background. “Huh. Can I have your friend’s name?” she asked, clearly having trouble finding what she was looking for.

“Lia Finch. Surely there aren’t that many Sams that work for you guys?” I asked the operator.

“Sir, we don’t have a Sam that works for us. Oh, here we go. Looks like you mean Jose Juarez. He’s the one who does that route,” she said. “It’s so strange. Jose has an impeccable record. He’s been with the company for several years. Are you sure you aren’t mistaken?” she asked, genuinely confused.

My heart started racing because I did not like how this was going. “No. Lady, her delivery guy is definitely named Sam. There’s no way that Sam and Jose are the same guy,” I barked at her.

“I’m sorry, sir, but there must be a mistake. I can just put in here that your friend had an unpleasant experience with Mr. Juarez. I’m sure he will be reprimanded for any unprofessional behavior,” she said, trying to diffuse my increasing anger.

“Dammit!” I yelled into the phone, not really pissed at her but at the gravity of what I was learning. “If what you’re telling me is true, then my friend has been dealing with a real fucking psycho!”

“I’m sorry, sir. If you’d like to speak to my manager, I can get him on the phone right away,” she spoke quickly.

“No, don’t worry about it. Thank you for your help,” I said before hanging up the phone.

What the fuck is going on here?

Lia said that Sam had been her delivery guy for years and this company thought his name was Jose. He definitely wasn’t this Jose Juarez—no fucking way. I sat at my desk, scratching my stubbly chin and trying to figure out what the hell was going on.

Attempting to get some work done, I put those thoughts away for a bit and checked on the progress of my houses. Most were in the slab phase, so there wasn’t much for me to do where they were concerned. I was building my own house, and that was much further along. It wouldn’t be long before I could get in there and start doing some of the custom areas myself. At least it would give me something to do besides daydream about the sexiest green eyes I’d ever seen. There wasn’t much work being done on my end since she’d maced the shit out of me. It would be nice to do some hands-on work.

After catching up on my paperwork, I decided to text Lia.

Me:
Hey, babe. Hope your day’s going well. I’m just doing boring-ass work. Looking forward to our date tomorrow night. C

When she didn’t text right away, I started to think about Sam again.

Who the hell is he?

If they have no record of him, then how has he delivering packages to her all these years?

The way he acted towards her last night left a bad feeling in the back of my mind. Everything about him screamed psychotic to me. Lia was already a fragile person from what I could see. I didn’t feel like there was a need to tell her about what I’d learned on the phone earlier until I uncovered more about it.

A chime sounded indicating a new text.

Lia:
Hey, Cale! All is well. Super busy day today. I had to eat lunch at my desk. Pops keeps dropping more stuff on me as if I don’t already have enough to do! Ugh, now he’s watching me text. TTYL! XOXO

I smiled at her text. She had such an unusual relationship with her boss. Lia had a way about her that made people want to take care of her. Pops was especially protective over her like a father would be. I was glad she had someone looking out for her at work.

I texted her back.

Me:
Tell Pops you’re conducting business with his newest builder. Now, what’re you wearing? C

I chuckled, thinking of how her face would turn ten shades of red at my text. Then my phone chimed again.

Lia:
Okay, Mr. Reeves. Let’s talk business. Are we talking about my business suit or what’s underneath? Underneath, well, there’s not much to describe…nothing AT ALL really to describe. I think the color’s called nude? ;)

What the fuck?

My dick twitched at thinking of that sexy siren sitting at her desk, wearing no fucking underwear at all.

Another chime.

Lia:
OMG!! Cale, I am so sorry. My “friend,” and I use the term loosely, decided to hijack my phone while I was taking care of a customer. And even though she’s giving me her puppy dog face, she’s going down. God, I am so embarrassed. XOXO

I laughed out loud, imagining Lia with her hands on her hips, red-faced with green eyes ablaze while giving her friend the what for. I’d give anything to take in that sight right now.

Me:
Tell your friend I said “thanks.” That was the best visual I’ve had in a while. ;)

Lia:
You guys suck.

“WHAT THE HELL, Anj!” I shrieked to my crazy friend. That was incredibly embarrassing.

“Girl, I’m just doing you a favor. This is the first action you’ve had since I’ve known you. You ain’t messing this up. Nope, not with that Mr. ‘I Got Swagger’ Reeves. He’s a keeper, girlfriend. Just ‘cause I got me a Denzel and two little cherubs don’t mean I ain’t still got it. Me and my man still get freaky beneath the sheets. I’m just schoolin’ you. You can thank me later,” she sassed back to me.

“What are we thanking you for, Anj?” asked Pops, walking up to my desk.

My face burned again with embarrassment.

“Mr. Johnson, this is girl talk. This kind of talk ain’t for old man ears,” she teased.

Pops looked back and forth between us before shaking his head and returning to his office, sending us both into a fit of giggles. Anj was a crazy mess most days, but at least we had each other’s backs.

“So? Are you going to see Mr. Swag tonight?” she asked.

Rolling my eyes at her nickname, I said, “No, but we have a date planned for tomorrow night.” I smiled because I was actually looking forward to spending more time with him. He was funny and extremely hot, and most importantly, he made me feel safe. I really never thought this would ever happen.

Me. Safe. With a man.

“I expect a full report on his naked booty on Monday morning,” she said casually, causing my face to burn again. “You got this, girl,” she winked.